By
Sharada Iyer
Directed by Nag Ashwin, Kalki 2898 AD had been a much-awaited Pan-India film with a humungous budget of Rupees 600 crores and released on 27th June amid high expectations from fans all over the world. The pre-release hype and the presence of big names like Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Kamal Hassan guaranteed a high first weekend ticket sales with people clamouring to watch the film at the earliest.
The heady cocktail of mythology and sci-fi with characters from the Mahabharata and a dystopian futuristic city of Kashi must have sounded brilliant on paper but sadly did not translate into anything special on screen. In fact, the film with its weird storyline, convoluted plot, boring narrative and an annoying Prabhas fell way short of expectations and was highly disappointing. Wearing the 3-D glasses only induced headache and did precious little to add any thrill to the proceedings.
The running time of 3 hours had a very slow, listless, and confusing first half but managed to salvage a little in the second half thanks to the towering presence of Amitabh Bachchan and his unbelievable fight sequences. This man at the age of 81 years, continues to stride the screen like a modern-day Colossus and still has it in him to carry a film on his shoulders. The kind of roles he takes up and the dignity he brings to his roles is a lesson to the industry. His dedication to the craft not only reiterates the fact that a superstar like him is not born every day but also showcases that when it comes to action scenes, he is unsurpassable and can a make a mincemeat of today’s stars in no time.
The animated sequence in the beginning from The Mahabharata tells us the curse upon Ashwathama which grants him a deathless life and how he would have to continue living on the earth until Lord Vishnu descends to vanquish all evil in his 10th avatar of Kalki. He is given the job to protect the woman who would be carrying the Lord in her womb. Amitabh Bachchan plays Ashwathama and Deepika Padukone is the woman who must be protected at any cost for she is believed to be carrying the Lord.
Cut to 6000 years later in the dystopian future city of Kashi, there is some place called a ‘Complex’ where the main villain Supreme Yaskin resides or should I say dangles because he is shown dangling in the air over a water body with a shriveled physical form and a face which looks weird. He has a huge gang of henchmen headed by Saswata Chatterjee who are busy conducting experiments on scores of women by getting them pregnant in a high-fi lab to extract some serum from their womb. No woman or girl is spared and all are forcibly dragged to join the experiment.
Prabhas plays a bounty hunter and wants to capture Deepika at any cost and enter the ‘Complex’ and dreams of a great life there. Disha Patni is his friend and their scenes together inside the Complex are long-drawn, disconnected from the main plot and make no sense. Prabhas after Bahubali 1&2 seems to be a different actor altogether. Gone is the charisma and appeal he exuded in those two films. He was bad in Saaho and terrible in Adipurush but here he was irritating beyond imagination. He walked through the entire film with a dumb expression on his face and his interaction in the film with a machine having a female voice was so tedious. The so-called comic dialogues fell totally flat.
Many industry people have done a cameo- Director Rajamouli, director Ram Gopal Verma, Dulquer Salman, Mrunal Thakur, and some others from Telugu industry whom I did not recognize. In fact, I had no clue about the names of most of the character actors. Actress Shobhna had a small role which she does with elan.
Saswata Chatterjee does not have the personality to be the main antagonist and that too in a sci-fi scenario. He is best suited for cold-blooded killer roles and so in this film he seemed a misfit and could not show much of his talent. His scenes lacked menace and he ended up looking like a villain from a children’s film. Oh! How we miss the presence of actors like Amrish Puri and Pran who were such masters of their game in projecting evil…
Coming to the lady of the film Deepika Padukone- she comes on screen quite late but once she comes, she is a major factor for causing the proceedings that unfold in the narrative. She looks statuesque as always but in terms of acting, she does not have much scope. A permanently bewildered expression is there on her face throughout the film. Her character has no clue what will happen to her and she walks through the role without any effort whatsoever.
The slow-pace of the narrative and the sepia-toned setting give the film a gloomy look for the entire duration. No set piece stands out and the introductory action scenes where Prabhas beats up the goons are just not engaging. There is no emotional connect. Kamal Hassan in the film has a very miniscule role- almost bordering on a blink and miss role! As there is a part 2 of the film coming after this, probably his role in that would be much longer.
The film springs to life only when Amitabh is there and unfortunately, he has just one scene pre-interval. As Deepika’s protector he must fight Prabhas the bounty hunter. Amitabh has been made to look like a giant of a man with unbeatable strength in his arms. Prabhas looks short in front of him and is no match where fighting skills are concerned. There is a superb scene where two Amitabhs are fighting with each other and that was so brilliant. One of them is the real Ashwathama and the other a disguised one. This sequence is a master stroke because if there is any person who can match Amitabh in his skills, it had to be Amitabh himself!!!
There was nothing special about the music and the songs were quite forgettable. I watched the film on the second day and there were only 15-20 people in the cinema hall. But trade estimates are churning out figures indicating huge collections. Maybe the buzz created before the release is still going strong to attract the audience. There are also people posting positive reviews. Well! It just goes to show opinions do differ!
Looking back, the trailer of the film had been quite confusing and unappealing but still there was some hope the film might be better. All in all, for me, undoubtedly the film fell way short of expectations and now the hype will start building up around Part 2 which hopefully would have a more engaging script, a taut narrative and tight editing…